‘Meet the Press’ transcript for June 17, 2007

MR. RUSSERT: Ambassador Ryan Crocker, thank you very much for joining us this morning and sharing your views.

Coming next, our political roundtable: E.J. Dionne, Kate O’Beirne, Eugene Robinson and Byron York. They try to decipher the politics of Washington coming up here on MEET THE PRESS.

(Announcements)

MR. RUSSERT: Iraq, Alberto Gonzales, Scooter Libby, Decision 2008, all topics for our roundtable, after this station break.

(Announcements)

MR. RUSSERT: And we’re back, welcome all.

Let’s start with Iraq. You just heard Ambassador Crocker talking about coming back to Washington, September, he and General Petraeus will tell Congress what is happening in Iraq.

Eugene Robinson, you weighed in on this subject with your column on Friday. Let’s read it: “White House spokesman Tony Snow ... said he was emphasizing ‘metrics’ because he knew that in September, ‘some people are going to try to make the argument, if the job is not done and if they haven’t perfected it and if they haven’t achieved all’” “‘it’s a failure. I wanted to guard against that.’ Precisely. In the world of retail, this is known as bait-and-switch.” Wow. Why?

MR. EUGENE ROBINSON: Well, it’s the White House that, that set up September as the time when we would know whether the surge was working or not, and then we would know the way forward in Iraq. And last week, Tony Snow, in his Wednesday briefing, went way, way out of his way to tamp down expectations, and essentially to say that, “Well, in September we’ll have a measure of maybe how things might be going, but it, it’ll be too soon to tell anything.” And you know, what it says to me, really, is that this is a president who has made up his mind on Iraq. He’s not budging, he’s not getting out of there. And I don’t think he’s really considering any sort of serious alternative to, to his existing policy, basically, which is to continue until victory—whatever, you know, as he defines it, whatever victory is.

MR. RUSSERT: Kate O’Beirne, the president did say that September was an important moment. Is it?

MS. KATE O’BEIRNE: It absolutely is on Capitol Hill, Tim. It’s been reinforced enough times. Whether or not the White House regrets the fact that people on Capitol Hill are expecting a status report telling them the way forward in September, they might regret that deadline, but it, it exists nonetheless. And people on Capitol Hill expect General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker to tell them what kind of progress is being made.

Today, Ambassador Crocker said things aren’t universally negative in Iraq. I think an awful lot of people who’ve been with the president so far—the Republicans—need to hear more than “things are not universally negative in Iraq.” The members tell me it’s got to be more than half full. There can be a mixed picture, but is General Petraeus convinced that there is a way forward now? Is he more convinced than he was when this was undertaken that the surge can work? That’s the kind of thing they want to hear.

MR. RUSSERT: Mitch McConnell, the leader of the Republicans in the Senate, said this: He went on to say that the “Iraqi government,” condemned it “for its failure to resolve security and political problems more expeditiously and predicted that, unless the current troop surge succeeds, U.S. policy will be changed by year’s end either by” the president, “or congressional action.”

John Boehner, the leader of the Republicans in the House, said that September’s “when Petraeus is required to report back to Congress on the progress of” the “‘surge’ policy.” “Numerous Republicans,” including himself, “have suggested there could be dramatic erosion in support within the GOP for the president and the war unless the political and military situation” “shows dramatic improvement.”

Is that the standard?

MR. BYRON YORK: Yes, it is. The White House is incredibly nervous about this. In the past week they’re—they’ve done a full court press on Baghdad. They’ve sent Admiral Fallon, head of all U.S. military in the Middle East, they’ve sent John Negroponte, number two man in the State Department, and now they’ve sent Robert Gates, the defense secretary, to Iraq to try to push the Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki into some sort of action. And what they’re getting in response is al-Maliki says, “Well, we’re making progress on an oil revenue sharing bill. We’re making progress on power sharing. But this is very complicated.” So the White House is pressing for results, trying to say that, “Look, September is really, really it.”

I talked to a very conservative Republican senator the other day, supports the war, and he says, “Look, we’re going to have to see some real progress by September, reasonable control of Baghdad, or we’re not going to be able to hold off the Democrats.” So the White House is very nervous.

MR. RUSSERT: E.J. Dionne, the Democrats have had an interesting strategy through the voice of their leader in the Senate, Harry Reid. This is how the Politico reported it: “Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called Marine General Peter Pace, the outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, ‘incompetent’ during an interview with a group of liberal bloggers, a comment that was never reported,” later was.

“Reid made similar disparaging remarks about Army General David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said several sources familiar with the interview.”

As I asked Ambassador Crocker, Reid said that Petraeus was out of touch with reality in terms of Baghdad. Is that a smart strategy for the Democrats?

MR. E.J. DIONNE: Well, I don’t know if it’s a smart strategy, but it’s nothing new. We’ve been criticizing generals for years. I bet if we had clips, we could find a lot being said about General McClellan back in the Civil War. Moreover, John McCain himself, leading supporter of this war, had been critical of Peter Pace. I think the controversy about Reid really goes back to what we’re talking about earlier, that time really is running out on the administration. You own poll, the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, asked the question, “Are things getting better in Iraq?” Ten percent. “Are things getting worse?” Fifty-four percent. That means most Republicans out there in the country don’t think things are getting better. And that’s why I think the effort to slip the September date and say we’re going to go forward just can’t work.

But I do think it sets up a more honest debate for the fall, because it’s very clear that the president’s desire is to keep American troops committed there well beyond the 2008 election. And I think what we’re going to start having in the fall is a debate over, do we really want to keep them committed there, even in smaller numbers, or do we eventually want to get them out. That’s the real choice we’re facing.

MS. O’BEIRNE: Tim, was, was Majority Leader Reid smart or not? No, it wasn’t smart. General Petraeus is widely respected on Capitol Hill. Members have every reason to believe that he is not going to be some sort of a mouthpiece for the administration, that they can expect, when he gives an assessment, that it’s going to be his honest assessment of how things are going on the ground. There’s no reason for Harry Reid to be maligning General Petraeus in any way. At the moment, the facts on the ground benefit the Reid side of the argument, and I do—I don’t think it’s smart for them to be picking on generals who serve so honorably by name. Not smart.

MR. RUSSERT: Is this the way the war is going to end, Byron York? Republicans in Congress are going to go their president and say, “Mr. President, time’s up”?

MR. YORK: I think what happens in September if he doesn’t show significant progress that can, that can make them keep supporting him, I think that’s going to happen, and the question will be faster or sooner. On Friday, I asked someone in the White House, “I mean, what is a realistic expectation of progress that can be shown by September?” And the answer was, “That’s difficult to say.” That’s just not going to work.

MR. ROBINSON: It’s hard to see exactly how that works, though. I mean, are the Republicans going to join the Democrats in a, in a, in a measure to defund the war...

MR. YORK: Mm-hmm.

MR. ROBINSON: ...in refusing to appropriate any more money for funds, which is essentially something they’ve said they can’t do because how can we not give money to support the troops who are already there. Short of that, it’s hard for me to figure out exactly what they’re going, going to do, given the president’s determination to press forward.

MR. YORK: I think they’ll be fighting each other, because a number of them oppose Bush’s handling of the war for different reasons. We know why the left does, but I was in South Carolina last week talking to conservative Republicans, and they oppose Bush’s handling of the war because they wanted him to pursue it more aggressively.

MR. ROBINSON: Right.

MR. YORK: Not only did he not go in with enough troops, but they felt that there were restrictive rules of engagement on our troops.

MR. ROBINSON: Uh-huh.

MR. YORK: And then, that if you’re going to fight a war, fight a war. So you have two sides that are both unhappy with the president coming from different places.

MR. RUSSERT: And there’s—I’m sorry.

MS. O’BEIRNE: And Gene—Gene, supporters of the president see the DOD appropriations bill in the fall as the vehicle.

MR. ROBINSON: That’s true, yeah, it is.

MS. O’BEIRNE: It only needs a majority vote.

MR. ROBINSON: Mm-hmm.

MS. O’BEIRNE: Will there be a majority come the fall that will want an appropriations bill with timetables for withdrawal? That’s the fear, of course, on Capitol Hill.

MR. RUSSERT: And Republicans might be willing to support that?

MS. O’BEIRNE: There might be enough Republicans this time around to get that kind of a bill, they fear.

MR. DIONNE: And I don’t—yeah, and I don’t even think Republicans need to meet a goal. If you had enough high powered Republicans who got together and made a statement—high powered meaning people respected by conservatives, respected across the party—and said, “This policy has to change,” they’re going to have an impact without winning any votes on the floor of Congress..

MS. O’BEIRNE: Yeah.

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